


The Truth

by TiaNadiezja



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-08
Updated: 2012-03-08
Packaged: 2017-11-01 15:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiaNadiezja/pseuds/TiaNadiezja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In one of those instants that lasts forever, Shepard considers the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: I haven't finished Mass Effect 3 yet, so this might not jive with any of the endings. Who knows?

"No, Ash, I need you to stay here.  Keep the _Normandy_ safe, make sure that, when the job's done, Joker can pull us out."

I had never lied to her before.  I knew, if she learned that this was a lie, she'd never forgive me.  It didn't matter, really; I wouldn't be there to forgive.  Maybe it would be better that way.

We could have attacked the Reapers weeks ago, saved millions more lives, but it was never about the Reapers.  The galaxy wasn't ready; the groundwork for the peace that would follow, that had to follow, hadn't been built yet.  If we'd gone as soon as we had the strength, the Reapers would have fallen only to be replaced by a long war between the remnants of the Council, Cerberus, the Alliance, Aria's mercenary fleet, and a dozen other factions.  We'd do the Reapers' job for them.

If I were better at self-delusion, I could have convinced myself I'd waited for the sake of the future, but it wasn't about the future.  It wasn't about the infinite generations of people - of humans and asari and turians and krogan and rachni - that would live with what we built here.  It wasn't even about Anderson on Earth, or the memory of Jenkins and Kaidan and Mordin and Kelly and Thane.

No, it was about what it had always been about.  What it had been about since the beginning, since the moment on Eden Prime when it all started.  And that was why Ashley had to stay behind, while I and Javik and EDI went to our deaths.

It was about the girl.


End file.
